Showing Off
by filesfreak4life
Summary: Harm and Mac pretend, and it goes farther that she expected... Harm/Mac Shipper Fluff.


**Author's Note: Okay this came to me the other day and I thought that it would be amusing. I don't feel like it is my absolute best character-wise, but the situation was a stretch anyways… Love love love it! Hope you enjoy, and let me know if you do!**

"Hey, what are you up to tonight?" Harm asks, walking into my office right at the end of the day.

We've been working on things lately… I'm not sure exactly where those things are leading us, but we've been spending more time with each other. After we said we would start at the beginning again, it has been a slow but steady climb back to where we used to be before everything with Mic and Renee and the two of us. I recently admitted to Sturgis that I'm in love with the man, and I'm coming to terms with the fact that I have probably been in love with him longer than I would like to admit.

I smile at him, ready to make him wonder for awhile, "I'm going out."

The way I say it and quickly turn back to the work I was doing when he walked in totally irks him, and I love it. We've always had this banter between us, but it has taken to a whole different level recently.

"What do you mean?" he asks, confused because he knows that I don't particularly care for going out.

"Harm, we're young… well, I'm young… so I'm going out." I again say so simply that I know it rubs him the wrong way.

"With someone?" he says and I can see the wheels turning in his head now more than before.

"Actually yes, I am."

"Who?"

Now the tables have turned and I'm a little irked at the fact that he even asked me that. What right does he have… well… okay… he does… kind of. He doesn't know that though. When I think about it, I can't be that upset because I said it to get him jealous anyways.

"Harm, that's none of your business!"

"Oh." He replies, getting a sad look on his face for a moment before telling me to have a good time tonight.

"It won't be fun." I call after him and I'm rewarded when he turns back around and walks back into my office with his eyebrows raised in question.

"It's a girl I knew in high school."

"Mac, you hated high school… why are you meeting someone?"

"She is doing a documentary about something having to do with something in the military. My name came up and she called to see if I was the same Sarah MacKenzie from Yuma."

"And?"

"Same Sarah MacKenzie." I throw my arms up in defeat.

"So she wants to interview you for the documentary?"

At this I smile because Harm has no idea how the wacked out female mind works. Women don't contact each other after years of never talking to each other to simply do business. The one in search of the contact does so to show off something or anything in her life. She does it to investigate the other so she can report back to others about what she saw.

"No, she wants to see if I'm the same drunk that dropped out." I say with a monotone that makes him sit down in front of my desk.

"What?"

"She contacted me because she is curious to see where I ended up. I was a hot mess when I was younger and she wasn't. I'm pretty sure that the only thing that we shared was the same street. She was one of those popular girls who everybody hated but had to be her best friend. She didn't make my life a living hell or anything like that, but she wasn't one to come to my aid if necessary."

"Okay."

"She wants to make sure that she's better than me just like she was back then."

"So let me get this straight… you are going to dinner with someone who you barely know from years ago, who you know is just meeting up with you to judge you?"

"I am."

"Why?"

"Because if I backed out or said no, then she would probably think that I was still a drunk." I say simply.

His eyes melt a little bit at that, as they often do when I bring up my past. He is ever my supporter and tells me often that the person I have become totally kicks the ass of the person that I ever was. That's part of the reason why I'm okay with meeting the girl. I hope he gets that, but part of me thinks that it's a hard idea for him to grasp.

"Mac."

"It's true. She'll come and she will be successful and she'll be beautiful and she'll have this gorgeous husband and kids… I figure that I at least can show up to the game." I get out with a shrug of my shoulders.

"Hey, two out of three ain't bad for beating her." He says and I quirk a brow, "You are unbelievably successful, you're more gorgeous than any woman I know, and you can just lie about the guy thing."

I blush at his statement and laugh at the last part. "I can't make up a guy. It doesn't' work out that way."

He contemplates this for a minute… long enough for me to wonder what he could possibly be thinking.

"You don't have to… I'll come."

I'm sure that my eyes bug out of my head and I know that my stomach has hit the ground. What? I know I don't voice it, but the question is obviously all over my face, so he quickly replies.

"I mean, I can show up to surprise my girlfriend a little while after you sit down. She doesn't have to know anything, and it could be fun. You and I have always loved the tag team, right?" He says with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Harmon Rabb, you are NOT pretending to be my boyfriend. In fact that is a really really bad idea."

"Why?"

I wait for a beat because I know that I can't tell him the real reason why this is a bad idea. We have been in such a good place lately and I don't want to bring up anything that would make him start to back away again, or to be honest… would make me run again.

"Because it just is." Because I'm in love with you…

"No… we already have all of the background story because we have been with each other for so long at JAG. You're my best friend so I know everything about you and likewise… We could have fun with it, and I could dote on you, so you don't only have a handsome boyfriend, but a gentleman too."

I can't believe I'm actually considering this, but I nod my head and tell him that we were planning on meeting at McMurphy's at 7:00.

"Good, gives me time to work on my dance moves and change into something that will make her drool."

"Don't have too much fun with this sailor."

"Just be surprised when I show up. Don't be looking around for me, or she'll suspect something is up."

Oh something is definitely up. What the hell am I thinking? Why would I agree to this? Well… I know why I agreed to this, but seriously?

A few hours later I'm stuck in conversation with a woman who hasn't changed a bit since high school.

"Sarah, you look great! We were all so worried about you when you dropped out, but it looks like you are doing good."

"I am, thank you." I say through a tight lipped smile, marveling at the way this woman can deliver a backhanded compliment in so many words.

"So, you enlisted in the Marines and then you did what?"

"Went to college, did a tour, and then went to law school."

"You're a lawyer?" her eyes get a little large at that, and I'm mildly amused and mentally ticking a tally point in my favor.

"Lieutenant Colonel Sarah MacKenzie of the Judge Advocate General Corps." I say very officially if just to intimidate her a bit.

"Oh, so you're a military lawyer?"

The way she says it makes me realize that she thinks that it is something entirely different. Point to her.

"I tried the private law firm once… Six figures and pearls weren't for me. Regular law is boring. Regular lawyers don't get tailhooked onto aircraft carriers in the middle of the ocean, catch killers on submarines, or hell… legally shoot a gun a few times a year. I like my law better." The more I say, the wider her eyes get and I know that she has officially decided that she underestimated me. And another point to me.

"Well, what about the men in your life?"

"Only one at the moment."

"ooh… is it serious?"

"I'd like to hope." Saying that, I'm not actually lying, so I'm already standing on solid ground.

"My honey and I just got married last October." She says, putting her left hand out for me to ooh and ah at her ring. Even when I actually wore a ring on that finger I wasn't that excited. There was the one time before Mic and I were officially engaged that I flirted with the idea of liking a ring on that hand, but the thrill was gone when I realized that I didn't really want to marry Mic Brumby.

"How –" I start to say when I hear Harm coming across the bar.

"Sarah! You're still here… I'm so glad." He says with a smile before leaning in to kiss me.

On the lips.

Harm is kissing me… he's kissing me and I'm not minding it one bit. In fact when I open my lips to give him better access I'm downright encouraging it.

When he pulls away I know my eyes are wide and there is a smile on his face, "surprise!"

"I didn't think you were going to get done with that briefing tonight!" I say, purposely ignoring the other woman at the table and coming up with a random reason for my surprise at him coming.

"I got done early and I remembered that you were meeting your friend here, so I thought that I would come down to make sure that you don't go home tonight… I want you with me." He says, lowering his voice just a bit and taking my hand in his.

If he wasn't already a lawyer and technically a pilot, I would say the man could pursue an acting career with how this is panning out.

I'm contemplating the whole situation when I hear a throat clearing next to me.

"Oh! I'm sorry! Harm, Courtney… Courtney, Harm." I say, gesturing between the two of them to introduce them to each other.

"Courtney, it's nice to meet you. Mac told me that you guys went to high school together."

"We did. At least for a little while." She said, knowingly referring to my dropping out.

Bitch.

"Well, that's nice. Have you girls had fun catching up?"

"We were actually just talking about you." I say punching him in the ribs as he's sitting next to me.

"You were?"

"Sarah was just telling me about her man. She didn't get to any of the good stuff though. How did you guys meet?"

I turn to glance in his direction and we both smile bigger than we need to. Not many couples have this spectacular meeting place, so we know that this will cause a bit of a jealous stir.

"You wouldn't believe us if we told you." Harm says before gesturing to the waiter to get him a beer.

"It can't be that odd." She says with a shrug.

"We met in the White House Rose Garden." He says simply.

"You met where?" she almost stutters as she says it.

"They've got a beautiful rose garden at the White House. Harm was receiving an award from the president at the time and I was coming to join him at JAG, so we met in the White House Rose Garden." I say, acting like it wasn't really that big of a deal.

"That has to be the best meeting place ever!" she says with a girl giggle that makes me want to throw up in my mouth a little bit. Why do some women have to be like that?

"It certainly changed my life." He says, leaning in for another quick kiss.

We continue chatting about our jobs and deciding to stay for some more drinks and talking when it happens. I don't know what he is thinking, but we are talking about California and where his parents live when he lets it slip out and changes the whole course of the evening.

"Yeah, I was thinking we could go to La Jolla before we go to Hawaii for our honeymoon." He says so casually that I don't even catch his meaning, but Courtney does and starts beaming.

"Oh my gosh!" she starts to gush and I'm forced to recall what he said last.

It's then that Harmon Rabb gets down on one knee next to the table and starts a speech that I will remember for the rest of my life, even if it is a well placed acting job.

"Sarah, I thought that doing this while an old friend was in town was the best idea, and then I rethought and decided it wasn't. Now I'm sitting here listening to you and realizing that there will be no perfect time, so I can't wait any more. You have been the biggest supporter of my life. You've been my best friend for years and the most beautiful woman I've ever known. I don't know when I started loving you, but I know that I don't ever want to stop. Please say that you'll marry me?" He says, and I'm unbelievably perplexed when he pulls a ring out of his pocket and presents it to me.

The bar has gone quiet and I am cursing him in my head for toying with my emotions and probably taking this little charade way further than it should have gone. God help me though, because I crawl into his arms and say yes before kissing him senseless.

Hey… if you don't go big, go home. If we were going to do this, we were going to do this right. Judging by the tears flowing down Courtney's cheeks, I had made my point.

"I love you Mac." He says, and it almost feels real for a second before he winks in my direction.

"I love you to Harm." I reply, full well knowing that I meant every word of what I just said.

God, why can't we make it work? Why can't we put everything else aside and just do the deed for once in our lives. Oh, that's right… this is just an act, and Harm isn't in love with me.

"Oh my gosh!" I hear her squeal before coming over and yanking my hand so she can see the ring that is resting there for the moment. "This is so exciting! I can't wait to tell everyone back home!"

Well, now my work was done. I feel like we outdid ourselves in impressing the woman who came here with the intention of besting me. Even if she goes back with lies, I'll still know that nothing prepared her for seeing me in this light.

"Hey Mac?"

"Yeah?" I ask, turning in Harm's direction.

"What do you say we call it a night?"

"Oh my gosh, yes! You guys need to go do some private celebrating!" Courtney says, ready to let us go for the evening.

"What about you?"

"I'll get a cab and not think of it."

"We can drop you at your hotel if you want?" Harm suggests and I almost want to kill him because I had every intention of leaving here alone tonight, and this meant that we were leaving together.

"You could?"

"Of course… No problem."

We pile into Harm's SUV with no issue and she tells us where she is staying and I notice that it is actually perfectly on the way to my apartment, so it is probably for the best. However we'll have to talk about how I'm going to get my car back from McMurphy's in the morning. I keep getting distracted though… by the ring. I'm distracted by how perfectly it fits on this finger and how weightless it feels on my hand. Mic's ring wasn't right. It didn't feel right… whether it was on my right or left hand. It was just there as dead weight.

I glanced up just in time to see him catching me in the act with a smile on his face. He was having a great deal of fun with this situation… feeling pretty proud that he had succeeded so successfully in shutting the other woman up about my past and who I was. There was pride in that smile that I'm sure Courtney took to be a man who just got told yes by the woman he loved. It was exactly the smile I would want on his face if he ever really asked me to marry him.

When we dropped Courtney off, we went silent. I kept glancing at the ring and out the window on my side so I could avoid looking at Harm. I wanted to avoid talking to him altogether, actually.

"So, we did good." He says with a smile.

"Maybe a little over the top there at the end." I reply with a small smile of my own.

He shrugs his shoulders and we make the rest of the drive in silence.

When we park in front of my building, I turn to him then, having to know the answer to a question that has been nagging at me for a while. "Where did you get an engagement ring on such short notice?"

"It was my grandmother's… I had mom send it a few years back."

"When you were dating Renee?"

"Ummm… no actually…" he says, and I'm confused for a moment.

"Jordan?"

"No… I wasn't dating at the time."

"Oh." I say, even more confused than when I asked him the question in the first place.

I start to take the ring off and he takes my hand before I can even touch it, placing another under my chin. "Don't you wonder sometimes Mac?"

"About what?"

"The ring looks good on you." He says glancing down and then back up to meet my eyes.

"It does." I nod in response.

"If I told you I wished that we could just keep pretending, what would you say?" he asks and I know my mouth goes dry in an instant.

"I would say that this was a discussion for another time."

"You still have the ring on…"

"You won't let me take it off."

"One more pretend moment?" he asks and I nod as his lips meet mine yet again.

We stay like that for a while, giving in to all those years of frustrations and pent up feelings. It was similar to the kiss the night of the engagement party where we knew that it was all coming to an end and we were desperately trying to hold on to everything.

When we separate, I look down one last time at the ring and pull it off my finger.

I hand it over to Harm who has a look on his face that I can only describe as disappointment and I can't begin to imagine why. We sidestepped around each other so much that I can't think of why he would change his tune now.

"Good night Mac."

"Good night Harm… and thanks for helping me out tonight. I'm sure she'll be thinking about that one for years."

"You did kind of blow her out of the water, Mac. You proved you were a success, you were damn beautiful tonight, and you got engaged right in front of her. All three were landslides for you."

"You didn't think she was beautiful?" I ask, letting my own insecurities surface yet again.

"Not like you…" he says, and I turn toward the building to hide my blush. "Hey, Mac… I'll come get you in the morning and we can either go grab your car or drive in together." He calls after me and I put a hand up in a wave to tell him that I heard his plan.

The whole night played out in my head about fifty million more times that evening. I couldn't sleep and I couldn't help but feel the weight of his lips on mine. How was I supposed to forget all of that. Or how were we going to broach the subject with each other. It was damn near impossible… or so I thought until this morning.

We picked up my car at the bar and didn't really talk about anything that happened last night. In fact Harm was back to being Harm, ridiculing me about the fact that I hadn't eaten anything for breakfast that morning. We were back to the easy banter and were apparently forgetting everything that happened the night before. I couldn't forget really, but I would play along like I did to keep Harm from feeling like he needed to talk about it.

"Hey Mac, the Admiral wants to see us." Harm says, peeking his head in to my office in the afternoon.

As we walk, I get the strange sensation of being watched and see a few of the other staff duck their heads into their paperwork quickly when I glance in their direction. Something big was about to happen.

We walk in and the Admiral barely looks up before telling us to sit down.

"When were the two of you going to inform me about the fact that you finally came to your damn senses and realized that you've been in love with each other for the past seven years? I thought that as your commanding officer and hell… as your friend that I ranked high enough to receive that memo."

"Sir, what-" I start to ask before he cuts me off again by standing up.

"There were three petty officers at the bar last night who came in this morning rather chipper after seeing the two of you get engaged last night."

"Sir, we –" Harm starts, but again is interrupted.

"You know that you could get in trouble for this, don't you? No matter how long I've been waiting for this to happen, I never thought that you would do it behind my back. I thought you would come out and tell me right away so we wouldn't have any problems."

"Permission to speak freely sir?" I finally get out and he nods in confirmation. "The Commander and I are not engaged, nor are we involved."

"Explain."

"Someone from Mac's past came up out of the blue to basically size Mac up… and I thought that she could use the help from a doting 'boyfriend' so we pretended."

"You pretended by publicly proposing to her?"

"It was a… it was… staged, sir."

"And the celebratory make out session that ensued after the proposal, which I have heard via the water cooler gossip was quite steamy… was that staged as well?"

I can feel the color rushing to my cheeks at the thought and curse myself for letting Harm take it so far yesterday.

"That's what I thought." He says, sitting back down behind his desk and looking over it at us in the commanding fashion that he uses on occasion. "I'm glad that I don't have to do anything but quell the rumors, but I think the two of you need to ask yourself a question or two."

"Sir?" Harm asks before I get the chance to.

"I just want you to ask yourself why I wasn't surprised at the act and only upset by the informing…. Dismissed." He says, still sitting down and waiting for us to leave the room.

The rest of the day we both went our separate ways, not wanting the rumor to continue, and hoping that the Admiral would shut it down quite quickly.

However, at the end of the day, Harm came knocking on my door yet again.

"Hey, what are you doing tonight?"

"Are you kidding me? I don't think the two of us should even be seen talking to each other after what happened last night." I say, laughing in his direction and believing that our situation was a crazy one.

"Mac, what's done is done. We know the truth, and… I just had a realization that I wanted to discuss with you."

"Can't we talk now?" I say, worrying about being alone with him outside of work. The fear of those feelings surfacing again is too painful to think about.

"No. My place at 7:00. I'll make you dinner, and all you have to bring is you. No argument." He states, walking out of my office and into his.

Ten minutes later, I see him walk out of JAG with his coat and briefcase in tow. He wasn't even giving me the chance to back out of the evening.

When I'm standing in front of his door, I'm perplexed. I don't know what exactly I would like to do in the situation and set to telling myself that I'm a Marine and I needed to suck it up and figure it out before I let myself go crazy. So I knock.

He doesn't even say hello. He opens the door and hits me with a question that I wasn't ever expecting from him.

"Did you tell Sturgis that you were in love with me?"

My mouth opens and closes in shock and I don't even make a move into the apartment.

"Here's the thing… he came into my office and told me that he heard the rumors and before I could tell him that they were just rumors and not fact, he tells me that he was glad you got the guts to tell me you were in love with me. When I ask him about it, he tells me about when you two were working that case with the missing officer and you just blurted it out and then asked him to keep your secret. I didn't know what to say."

"Do you know what to say now?"

"No." he says quickly and I am wanting to run to the nearest hole and crawl into it for a while. "And you know what else surprised me… of the people that believed the rumor and came up to congratulate me, not one of them was surprised by the fact that you and I were engaged. Not one. What does that say?"

"I don't know."

"Did you tell Sturgis that you were in love with me?" he asks again, and now I don't know which way is up.

I could lie, but I'm not that person. I could tell him that it was something that happened, but it was something I intended to keep to myself, but again that would be misinformation.

"Yes."

"Okay then… come in." he replies, leaving me at the door and running somewhere else in the apartment.

When he comes back I'm sucked into a moment of déjà vu, when he gets down on one knee and starts a very familiar speech, "You have been the biggest supporter of my life. You've been my best friend for years and the most beautiful woman I've even known. I don't know when I started loving you, but I know that I don't ever want to stop. Please say that you'll marry me?"

"Harm… really… the same speech?" I say, thinking that this has to be a joke.

"Mac. I meant it then and I mean it now. I do love you, and I have for a while now. The ring was for you. I got it from my mother after Sydney so I could get up the guts to tell you that Brumby wasn't the man you should marry."

"You never did."

"I'm doing pretty good right now though." He says, gesturing to his position still kneeling on the floor.

I smile then, because he really does look adorable looking up at me with a ring in his finger and confessing his love for me.

"Say it again."

"Mac, Sarah… I am so in love with you… will you marry me?"

"Yes."

When he puts the ring on my finger the comfort of it there does not surprise me. It felt right on there last night and it feels even more perfect right now. Then we lean into each other to kiss for the first official time as a couple, let alone engaged couple. A few minutes later, I pull back quickly with a realization.

"We have to call the Admiral." I say quickly as he is trying to pull me back to him.

"Mac, are you kidding me right now?"

"What did he say this morning?" I remind him with a quirk of my brow.

"So we call the Admiral."

When he picks up the phone he is confused for a minute, _"Colonel, what's wrong?"_

"Nothing is wrong sir, I just needed to inform you that Commander Rabb and I are engaged."

"_Ha ha… didn't you have enough fun with this today Colonel?"_

"Actually no sir, because the real thing is so much better than the fake."

"_You've got to be kidding me!"_ he replies in his stern, half-screaming voice that he reserves for when Harm and I do something stupid while on investigation… or any other time we do something stupid.

"We are very serious this time sir."

"_If this is for real, come see me tomorrow morning to talk about your options. Also…. Colonel… if this is for real, I'm glad that the two of you finally figured out what we have all known for years."_

"I am too sir."


End file.
